


Little Steps

by teamchaosprez



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adoption, Agender Character, Alternate Universe - Human, Christmas, Family, Fluff, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Nonbinary Character, Rated T To Be Safe, Trans Character, and the underground is a figment of frisk's imagination, basically this is an au where the monsters are human, because there might be some dark themes coming into play eventually, there's a little bit of angst and a lot of fluff, to help them deal with the trauma of past abusive parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-04-30 10:11:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 19,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5159879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamchaosprez/pseuds/teamchaosprez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After being ditched in the sewer by their abusive biological parents, Frisk never really expected to be adopted by the woman that found them. Just as they're getting used to actually having a loving home, they are introduced to their adoptive mother's friends-- well, they're more like a family, really-- as they come home to visit for Christmas.</p><p>TUMBLR FOR QUESTIONS: teamchaosprez<br/>TRACKED TAG ON TUMBLR: little steps undertale</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so my friend Chaos validated this AU idea you can thank them
> 
> Frisk -- 7, will be 8 by next chapter, Agender  
> Toriel -- 35, Female

It was cold in the sewer.

Frisk was faintly aware of this, but mostly they were aware that they were alone and probably doomed. Dark eyes flitted around the dim, damp space; concrete and icky water seemed to be all there was of this place. The manhole above them allowed a little bit of light to pass through, illuminating a tiny portion of their smelly prison.

Their arm hurt. They figured it must be broken from the fall.

It wasn't that it was colder than their parents' home, though. Just a different kind of cold. A physical cold instead of the overwhelming presence of their biological parents either not caring or just wanting to get rid of them. Seems as though that constant question had just been taken care of.

They stayed put where they were, not willing to risk anything popping out to attack them. Being merely seven years old, they still had a vivid imagination regardless of whether their caretakers wanted anything to do with them. In fact, if anything it had thrived off their parents' apathy. Giving them something to do when most kids would be spending quality time with their mothers and fathers.

Right now, Frisk's imagination told them that they were laying in flowers. They'd fallen into a realm of monsters. Both good and bad ones, but all better than Mother and Father.

Suddenly, they could hear footsteps. Violently wrenched out of their fantasy world, the child stood and tried to flee, but squealed faintly in pain when they jostled their injured arm.

A tall woman stood before them. She blinked, stunned, before kneeling down to their level. Frightened, Frisk just stared at this stranger. They imagined that in the monster realm this woman was a goat; hopefully a nice one.

“Dear, are you all right?”

A hesitation before Frisk shook their head.

The woman also hesitated before she spoke again. “Is it okay if I pick you up and take you to the police? It's not very good for a child to be down here.”

They nodded, and they could feel strong arms lift them oh-so-gently and cradle them against the woman's chest, careful not to hurt their arm- was it really that obvious that the limb was wounded? A pang of fear ran through their chest. Injuries were a sign of weakness, something that deserved to be punished... but this kind stranger hadn't done anything to make them feel that they were about to be chastised. It was utterly confusing and a little distressing.

“My name is Toriel.” She spoke softly, a warm smile aimed at the child. “Is it okay if you tell me yours?”

“.... Frisk.”

 


	2. Chapter One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toriel finally gets to take Frisk home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I know literally nothing about the adoption process, so for the sake of continuity let's pretend that this is a fictional island country near the north of the United States.
> 
> Expect another chapter either today or tomorrow.

The adoption process in this city was long, wonky, and kept getting set back. Toriel was a very patient woman, but she had been wrapped around Frisk's little finger since they'd insisted on having her nearby for every little police interrogation and the courtroom process that had removed them from their biological parents' custody. She had filed to adopt Frisk the moment that trial had ended; that had been in mid-June. Now, it was early December, and Toriel wasn't sure how much more waiting she would be able to take. She'd take action soon if she needed to.

The whole process was pretty much finalized as it was! Frisk had come to stay with her for a week already, and that was supposed to be the very last step that would determine whether Toriel was a suitable mother for the child. That had been in October, right around Halloween; they had gone trick-or-treating together, and Frisk had stated time and time again that they'd had a very nice time and very much wanted for Toriel to become their legal guardian and new mother.

Background checks had been completed, countless papers had been finished and filed. The only thing holding it was how utterly _slow_ the social work department was, and how many 'complications' had come up. The place Frisk was been staying at had told Toriel that the child would be safe in her custody by Thanksgiving.

Well, Thanksgiving had come and gone. It was now merely two weeks before Christmas, and Toriel was longing for her adoptive child to be with her for the holiday season. It was bound to be hectic, but the woman really did want Frisk to be able to have a happy and eventful Christmas; the kid had never even been trick-or-treating before, who was to say their parents had treated them around their birthday and the most wonderful time of the year!

Toriel awoke on December eleventh with a mission. She was going to call the social work department and give them a piece of her mind. She got out of bed at exactly seven o'clock, showered, dressed, and promptly sat at the table with her phone in hand (Alphys was frequently trying to get her to update to a smart phone, but, well, her flip phone did the job pretty well for a lot less money). Just as she was about to punch in the number for the social worker in charge of Frisk, her phone began vibrating in her hand; that very person was calling her.

Huh.

The woman hit the button to answer the call and held the device against her ear, tapping her fingernails on the kitchen table. “Hello,” she greeted calmly. There goes any intention to be firm and slightly mean. Just wasn't in her nature to be confrontational, perhaps.

“Hello, Ms. Dreemur.” The female voice on the other end responded. “I have good news for you. Frisk should be able to come home with you by noon.”

She blinked a little, slightly stunned by the suddenness of this; a glance at the clock told her it was just past eight, which gave her about four hours to do some last minute cleaning and maybe dust off the room she had prepared for Frisk (which had been ready for five months now). Living alone and keeping tidy just for herself meant there wasn't very much to do in that regard; maybe clean off the counter and pick up a few books she'd left out. Four hours was more than enough time.

“That's great, thank you so much!” Her voice had taken on a giddy tone to match her mood. “I'll come by and pick them up at twelve o'clock sharp.” And if they decided to give her another false alarm, there would be hell to pay. It took her forty five minutes just to drive to the office, and the disappointment combined with the unneeded spending of gas was enough to make her sad enough to last a lifetime.

“Sounds good. We'll see you then.”

“Thanks again-- goodbye.”

The call was ended, leaving Toriel one very happy parent. Her heart felt like it would just burst out of her chest! Hurriedly, she put her phone in her pocket and stood to make sure her home was neat enough for her charge. She was sure that Frisk would be happy no matter what the house looked like, but she wanted to make sure everything was perfect. Perhaps they'd even go out for ice cream before she actually drove the child home. Either way, she was determined to make this day an amazing one – their first one together as a family.

Just as she predicted, it didn't take very long to clean up and dust. She wound up arriving at the office at quarter to noon, sitting impatiently in the waiting room and internally complaining about how slow time was moving forward. Excitement kept her from getting bored, however, as she frequently glanced up at the clock and became more and more pleased as the minute hand inched closer to the twelve.

At eleven fifty nine AM, she was called back and almost tripped over her own two feet following the secretary to where the social worker, judge, and Frisk were waiting. She could feel her heart turn to mush when the child's face lighted up upon seeing her move through the doorway.

There were a few last-minute papers to sign, and Toriel was notified that she'd receive a few home visits to ensure that Frisk was still happy and healthy. Policy, mostly. When Toriel was handed the adoption papers and she and her adoptive child were permitted to leave, she swore she had never been happier in her life.

She thanked the judge and the social worker, and Frisk said their goodbyes. The child latched onto her hand and it felt like they would never let go as Toriel led them to her car and helped them buckle in.

The drive to Toriel's house was spent with the woman describing her plan for the next few weeks to Frisk. Since winter break was starting soon anyway, they wouldn't be starting school until after the New Year. The kid seemed relieved to know this.

“And I have some friends coming to visit for Christmas. They're more like family, really, since I don't have any related by blood. Sans and Papyrus – they're brothers, both police officers – should be arriving within the next few days. I'll tell you about everyone soon, but right now I think we should relax a bit and let you get settled in.” She glanced in the rearview mirror and smiled at Frisk, who was watching her with rapt attention.

“I've never really celebrated Christmas before. I know what it is, but Mother and Father never really made anything of it.”

Oh, Toriel's heart just about broke. “Well, I'll be sure to make this year the most special Christmas ever. You're going to have a good life now, Frisk, and this is going to start it off right.”

A smile was their response as the woman turned the car into her driveway, parking it outside the garage and climbed out of the vehicle. It was rather cold out; maybe the first snow would happen that night. She walked around to let Frisk out, watching with fondness as the child ran to the front door and tried to open it, only to turn around and wait patiently for Toriel to unlock the door.

And she did just that, letting the door open so that they could enter the house.

“Welcome home, Frisk.”

 


	3. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk is in the house for the first time, and they find their current situation very nice indeed. They also take a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I have very high inspiration for this fic right now so you can probably expect another chapter in a little while. Sans and Papyrus will be introduced in the next chapter, and my plan is to introduce each character with a quick little chapter shortly before they come to Toriel's house.

Toriel's house was nice, and it befuddled Frisk. It looked so small on the outside, but once inside it was rather roomy but still gave a calming sense of being at home. Most of the place was underground – at least four spare bedrooms, an office, a few bathrooms. Upstairs was the basics – a kitchen, a living room, and three nice little bedrooms right in a row. Frisk was very relaxed from the moment they stepped inside; for the first time in their life they felt as though they were safe and secure. It certainly helped that they trusted Toriel and knew that they would not be abandoned again.

One thing that made them uneasy for one reason or another, however, was the houseplant right in the foyer. It was nothing too special, really; a yellow flower with a long stem kept nice and safe in a pot. Frisk wasn't entirely sure what was so unsettling about it, really; by all means, it just looked like a normal flower. In their little fantasy world, they imagined it with a friendly face that could turn terrifying at any given moment... they would call it Flowey and it would be the only truly bad monster in the entire Underground.

Yeah. That sounded about right. They would try to avoid Flowey.

Now that they were inside, they didn't really know what else to do. This was home, but they had no clue exactly where they could explore or what was off limits or anything. Frisk slowly turned to look at Toriel, a faintly distressed look on their face. They really didn't want to break any rules and alienate their new mom without meaning to! The kind smile offered by her was a bit of a comfort, and she reached to take their hand; they accepted without hesitation.

Toriel led them to the hallway on the right, and they trailed behind her without letting go. They could see a few other plants down the hallway, though none of them gave them an uneasy feeling like the flower in the front of the house did. The first door was the one they stopped at, and Frisk noticed with a tiny amount of shock and a whole lot of happiness that their name was displayed across the wood in colorful stickers.

“Here we are, a room of your very own.” Toriel smiled at them. “You're free to walk around the house as much as you like, but this is where your things will be so I thought I'd show you this first, especially since I should get to making dinner. I have something special planned for tonight.”

Frisk nodded and reached for the doorknob, opening the door and stepping inside. Wow, this room was bigger than the one at their birth parents' house or the little foster home! And it was all theirs, with a lamp and a toybox and a desk and a closet and a bed that looked comfier than anywhere they'd laid in their entire life. “Is this really mine?” They asked in awe, looking to their adoptive mother. “Like, the whole room? It's all for me?”

“Well, of course. I didn't know what you'd like, so I picked some generic toys that I thought I would've enjoyed when I was your age. I believe I got the size of the clothes right, at least, and I got a little bit of everything in those--” Toriel's speaking was cut off when the child suddenly threw their arms around her in a big hug. She blinked a bit, stunned, before kneeling down to properly embrace her adopted child.

Frisk had never been so happy in their entire life. Dark eyes looked up to their new mother, shining brighter than any star ever to exist. “Thank you so much!” They gushed ecstatically, the smile on their face almost too big to be real. “I appreciate it, you have no idea. I love it.” They had been at their new home for maybe five minutes and they were already a hundred and ten percent sure that they were going to be very happy here. They were wanted, they had a nice room, they didn't have to be afraid of every little action being punished... this was more than they ever could have hoped for living with their biological parents.

They wanted to do so many things; they wanted to explore their new home, they wanted to draw pictures of their fantasy world (maybe this neighborhood was a maze of beautiful ruins and the house was right at the edge of them, by the entrance to a snowy forest!), they wanted to give a name to every stuffed animal lining the space between their bed and the wall, and... well, honestly, they were getting a little sleepy, despite the fact that it was only one o'clock at the latest; they kind of wanted to take a nap too. It had been a very eventful morning, and despite everything Frisk was a child and couldn't handle so many things without getting tuckered out.

Yeah, maybe they would take a nap first and then walk around the house. That seemed like a good plan, which they quickly relayed to their adoptive parent. Toriel nodded in agreement and asked if they'd like to be tucked in, which they enthusiastically nodded in response to.

The woman gently helped the child into the covers; they were right, it was a very warm and comfortable bed and they had no trouble getting cozy as the sheets and comforter were tucked around them. A small, blissful smile was present on their face; they were surprised momentarily when a soft motherly kiss was planted to their forehead, and almost felt like they would cry. They had never been shown such a sign of affection from a maternal figure before.

“Goodnight, Frisk,” Toriel spoke softly as she ruffled their hair and began to leave the room, closing the door until it was open just a crack.

The child hesitated before they spoke up quickly, before she could leave the room. “Toriel, wait!” Nerves set in as the woman turned to face them, but they took a deep breath and asked the question on their mind before they could back out. “Is it okay if I call you 'mom?'”

There was no answer for a couple of seconds, and Frisk was nervous they'd crossed a line; their fears quickly melted away, however, as a bright smile appeared on the face of their adoptive mother. “If it would make you happy, Frisk, I would be delighted if you called me mom. I _am_ your mother now, after all!” She was clearly pleased; they could hear it in her voice.

Frisk nodded enthusiastically. Mom. Toriel was their mom now. The thought created a warm feeling in their chest; they really, really liked the woman that had been so kind to them since she found them and adopted them into a home where they were confident they would be loved and protected. In fact, they doubted that there was anyone else quite worth of the title 'Mom.'

She left the room quietly, supposedly going to the kitchen to get dinner ready. A sense of peace enveloped Frisk as they relaxed in their new bed, looking up at the ceiling. There were glow-in-the-dark stars painted oh-so-carefully above them; it was a relaxing sight, one that put the child at ease as they closed their eyes. It was within moments that they fell into a sleep, one deeper and more resting than any they had experienced beforehand.

This also paved way for their first dream in a very, very long time.

They dreamed of their fantasy world. They had fallen down a very long hole into a bed of flowers, but had not been hurt and could rise to walk. They had made their way forward into a darker clearing, a flower with a friendly face standing tall in their path. It explained that its name was Flowey and that in this world LOVE was given through LOVE pellets, before tricking them into running into some bullets. It insulted them and then tried to kill them with the pellets, but a goat lady came to save them; it was Toriel, and Frisk was very relieved to see her. She chased the mean flower away and led Frisk into the ruins, teaching them how to get through all sorts of different puzzles and how to get through conflicts without hurting anyone.

It was a nice dream. A very nice dream indeed.

 


	4. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans receives the news from Toriel. Papyrus is pleased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SECOND CHAPTER IN ONE DAY, WOOOOOO. Also fun fact, my girlfriend's name is Tori so it throws me off a little every time I use that nickname for Toriel lmao.
> 
> This is a new record for number of words I've written in one chapter.
> 
> Sans - 33. Male. Depressed, hides it very well, non-diagnosed.  
> Papyrus - 19. Male.

Sans wasn't exactly fond of the police officer life. It required a bit more effort than he generally liked to put into things, breaking down the excellent skill of just not caring that he had built up in his life. It had been a skill to protect himself at first, to keep his feelings from getting hurt by his deadbeat parents that didn't seem to care about him at all. He didn't get very good grades, he didn't participate in any extracurricular activities... he had built up a habit of just being apathetic that worked perfectly fine for him, and he never saw any reason to change it.

That is, until Papyrus was born.

He'd been fourteen when his parents told him he was going to have a younger sibling, and for a good month he had been angry. What the hell were they thinking? If they couldn't take care of him, why would they be able to take care of a baby? Sans could fend for himself, but newborns were tiny and fragile and would die if they were left alone. He often wondered why they hadn't just gotten rid of it, spared themselves the effort of having to explain to the police why their baby had been found dead of neglect, spare Sans the pain of losing a sibling. Who the hell would take care of this kid?

The epiphany had come to him in the middle of history class as he avoided filling out notes regarding Napoleon Bonaparte.  _He_ would take care of his younger sibling.  _He_ would be the one that made sure the kid had a decent childhood and grew up healthy and to be an alright adult. And, well, to make a long story short, Sans did his homework that night. He wasn't even convinced he would  _like_ the kid; it was mostly a responsibility sort of thing to avoid his parents getting in trouble.

Papyrus was born the March of his freshman year, and Sans' heart melted the moment he held the tiny newborn in his arms the first time. It was the first time he'd felt anything even close to love; this was  _his_ baby brother, and the tiny boy had broken right through the elder sibling's layer of apathy and settled in the form of a warm feeling in his chest. Sitting in a chair in his mother's hospital room and cradling the tiny Papyrus to his chest, Sans made a promise that he would never let anything happen to the kid. It was a promise he intended to keep, and would die to honor.

The rest, well, it was history. He'd gotten custody of Papyrus the moment he turned eighteen, taking the three-year-old out of their parents' home and into a whole other state. He raised his younger brother himself, taking care of him like a parent would while also trying to keep the goofy spirit and laid-back attitude of the ideal big brother. It was stressful, but it was manageable if only because he loved his baby brother so much.

The second time he grew to care about somebody was when he scored a job as a security guard in the local private college. He would always bring Papyrus with him to work to make sure the kid didn't destroy the house or get himself killed doing something toddlers did. Eventually, after he'd managed to save a bit of money, he'd hire a babysitter, but for now he'd have to balance doing his job and keeping an eye on his brother. For the most part, he did a pretty good job, but one bright May day he looked up from fixing a lock to see that his charge had disappeared.

Sans' first instinct was to panic, but he pushed that down in favor of running around the nearby area calling out for Papyrus. He was just a baby, he couldn't have gotten  _that_ far. Unless someone took him. No, no, don't think about that now. He refused to slide into pessimism so fast, he just needed to look  _without_ getting his mind all jumbled up and panicked. He would do no good to his baby brother if he was a freaked out mess.

Running past the library, he heard a familiar laugh and just about died from relief. He quickly entered the room to gather up his brother and came face-to-face with the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Toriel was her name, and she'd been playing with Papyrus to make sure he didn't wander any further for the past five minutes or so. Sans had thanked her profusely, and they'd strung up a conversation; Toriel was a junior, two years older than him and an education major, and was engaged already to the one boy in the school that had his entire life together, Asgore. They talked for quite a while, until Sans' shift was over, and exchanged phone numbers. Without even meaning to, Papyrus had led his older brother to making his first ever friend.

Sans was still in contact with Toriel; she was practically family to he and Papyrus. For sixteen years they had stuck together, helping each other through life's ups and downs, spending holidays together and confiding in one another. Sans had been the shoulder that she cried on when she lost a child and went through a divorce. They were very close, and remained so even after Sans and Papyrus moved across the country. So of course the brothers were aware that Toriel was in the process of adopting a child, a cute thing named Frisk. It was good for her, they both thought; maybe she would finally be able to come to terms with the death of her son years ago.

Sans had been vented to about the apparent corruption of the adoption process several times, and when his phone let out the familiar ringtone and a picture of Toriel appeared on the device he figured this was another of those occasions. He was on patrol at the moment, but to hell with it; he pulled over the police car he was driving and slid to answer it. His friend came before his job.

“Hey, Tori,” he greeted with his usual somewhat-toneless voice, watching someone speed by. He'd let it slide this time. “Didja get set back again?”

“No, actually!” She sounded excited. That was a good thing. “The adoption  _finally_ went through. I just brought them home, they're taking a nap right now. They're so  _perfect_ , Sans, I've only had them for a little while and I already love them so much.”

A smile appeared on his face. He loved it when she was happy. Not that he had a crush on her or anything. Okay, maybe a little one, but he wasn't going to risk their long-running friendship over it. “That's great. Are they adjusting okay?”

“Oh, yes. In the six months I've been trying to get them I've never seen them this happy.” He could hear her yelp a bit; she was apparently trying to talk to him while cooking, which never really ended well. “They even asked to call me 'mom.'”

“Man, that's amazing.” He noticed that it was nearing one thirty; his shift was almost up, and then he could just pick up Papyrus from the local community college and head home. They were leaving for Toriel's the next day, but it was a long drive so they wouldn't get there until the day after that. “Should I plan to leave a bit closer to Christmas, then? I don't want to overwhelm them just a coupla days into getting used to a new home.”

“Oh, no, they'll be very excited to meet you, and Alphys is supposed to get here in about a week anyway so they'll be around new people very soon whether you push the day you come back or not. I'm sure Papyrus is pretty impatient anyway.”

Well, yeah, that was true. As passionate as his brother was about his schooling, Sans knew that Papyrus had been looking forward to visiting Toriel for a long time and wouldn't take any delays very well for whatever reason. “Good point. We'll stick to the plan, then. See you in a couple days.”

“Sounds good to me. Be careful, okay? Don't get into a car crash or anything, it's supposed to be snowing all day tomorrow and I don't want you two getting hurt.”

“Don't worry about it, Tori. We've been doing this for a couple years now, I know how to drive all the way there in the snow. I'll be careful driving, I promise.” Another glance at the clock told him that it was now one thirty and Papyrus would be very grumpy if he was more than a few minutes late picking him up. “I gotta go, Pap's class is over. Bye, see you on Monday.”

“Bye!”

Sans ended the call and returned his phone to his front right pocket before pulling out of his parked position and driving the short distance to the college. As always, his younger brother awaited him near the front gate and ran forward to practically dive into the shotgun seat, buckling his seatbelt and beaming at Sans. Ah, something good had happened today.

“I, the great Papyrus, aced an algebra test today!” The young man announced proudly, pressing his hand to his chest. “It was very difficult, and I wasn't sure if I could do it, but being as great as I am I pulled through anyway.”

Sans felt a great burst of pride for his younger brother, and happily noted that his self esteem was as good as ever. He was afraid that college would have killed the spark in his brother's eyes and the confidence in his personality, but- thank whatever god there was- it hadn't. Papyrus was just as high-spirited and loud as ever.

“Good job, buddy. I'm proud of you.” Sans replied as he pulled out of the parking lot and began driving towards their apartment building. “I've got some good news, too.”

“Well, spit it out, brother!”

He snickered a bit and rolled his eyes. “Y'know that kid Toriel's been trying to adopt for the last half a year? It finally went through today. She got to take them home, and we'll be able to meet them in a couple days when we visit for Christmas.”

He didn't need to take his eyes off the road and look over to know that Papyrus' ever-present grin had increased in size and he was sitting up straight. “SANS, THAT IS ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!” The yelling wasn't exactly necessary, but couldn't be helped. “I'M GOING TO BE THEIR VERY BEST FRIEND. MAYBE YOU CAN TELL US BEDTIME STORIES TOGETHER!”

Sans smiled and glanced over at his brother for a second. Just as he thought, Papyrus was beaming and had turned completely in his seat to face him. “Maybe, if they want me to. Try not to yell at them when you first meet them though, alright? The kid's been through a lot and stuff.”

“BUT OF COURSE! MY VOICE WILL BE VERY SOFT.”

He doubted that, but didn't tell his brother. Ever since he was little, Pap had been literally inable to lower his voice beyond a semi-shout. One of his many charms, though it was bound to frighten an eight year old child that had been abused and put through a lot of complicated legal processes for most of their life.

“Of course, Pap.” He slowed down to go through an icy patch; call him lazy, but Sans was always very careful when there was even the smallest of risks to his younger brother's life. He may have been an adult now, but the shorter of the two was not going to go back on his promise and make some stupid escape while driving that would kill one or both of them.

“We are still leaving tomorrow, right?” Seems that he'd settled down enough to bring his voice back to normal volume. Good.

“Of course. Tori gave us the okay so there's really no reason not to.”

“HOORAY!”

 


	5. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk meets Sans and Papyrus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three chapters in one day dear lord when will someone stop me.
> 
> If you're enjoying this AU, please make sure you let me know with a quick comment or tag me in a post on Tumblr! I'm tracking the tag "little steps undertale" or you can tag my URL, "thelovelymisslazuli." If it gets attention, I might make a continuation of it after this fic.

By the time Monday arrived, Frisk had memorized every nook and cranny of the house. They loved spending time with Toriel, and told her all about their fantasy world; she seemed intrigued by it, which the child found to be utterly delightful. They gleefully explained every drawing to their adoptive mother, telling her all about the ruins and the world of the monsters. Toriel told them about their new family, too – not related by blood, she explained, but close enough that they could be considered such. And, most exciting of all, Frisk was going to get to meet all of them in the next couple of weeks. Well, almost all of them anyway – one of them was in the military and nobody was sure if she'd make it home in time for Christmas, not even her.

Sans and Papyrus, for example, were brothers. Sans was older than Papyrus and had basically raised him himself. Sans told funny jokes and Papyrus was very loud and liked to cook, Sans was a bit lazy and Papyrus worked so hard that people sometimes worried about him. Frisk had concluded by the time Toriel was done talking about them that their mom liked Sans a lot. Maybe they could try and play matchmaker if they could observe enough. Getting a mom _and_ a dad? That would be stellar, like a dream come true, especially if they liked each other beforehand.

They had found themself waiting impatiently by the front window the day Toriel had told them the brothers would be arriving. How exactly they would introduce themself they weren't sure - they didn't exactly have the best social skills and they were about as nervous as they were excited. Which was very. They hoped the brothers liked them. What if they didn't? Oh, wow, now they were feeling anxious. Frisk stood up from where they were seated and walked to the kitchen in search of their mom. Maybe drawing how Sans and Papyrus would look in the Underground would help them feel better, but they didn't know what either brother looked like, so it was their hope Toriel would have a picture.

"Mom?" They spoke, walking over to the tall woman and tugging on her sleeve. She was having a conversation on the phone with someone, but halted the discussion to turn to Frisk immediately. Once they knew they had her attention they made their request. "Do you have pictures of Sans and Papyrus? I want to make them into monsters for my world." Maybe they would tell her about it later, too.

Toriel smiled, nodded, and stood up, continuing her conversation as she moved over to the counter and ruffled through a drawer to pull out a picture. Frisk could make out bits and pieces of what she was saying; they guessed that someone was having a hard time clearing out the holidays with their boss so they could come and visit. The child couldn't tell who, though. They watched as Toriel pulled out a Sharpie and labeled each person pictured before handing them the paper.

It was an old one; the label in the corner told Frisk it had been taken the Christmas two years previously. Nine people stood before a beautifully decorated tree, smiling happily and clearly having a grand old time. Their names were written above their heads, and against the dark background they were a bit hard to read but Frisk could make it out pretty well. Sans and Papyrus were standing next to each other in the photo; Papyrus was tall, with a more lanky build and a proud grin on his face, whereas Sans was short and a bit chubby. They could recognize a bit of tiredness in Sans' eyes, but dismissed it.

The sight of their new family all together filled them with some sort of determination.

Frisk hurried back to their room and climbed to their desk, pulling out a piece of paper and the crayons they had been kindly supplied with. They stared at the picture with a scrutinizing, analyzing stare that might have withered it had it been alive. They decided that the brothers would make very nice skeletons, and set to work with their drawing. They were alright at it, having always done it to pass the time and make things less bleak and hopeless, and their fantasy world was one of their favorite things, so of course they tended to put all their effort into drawing it.

They had lost track of time while drawing Sans and Papyrus the skeletons, and had been so focused that they didn't even hear a car pull up or notice that the door had been opened and closed until they were wrenched out of their concentration by Toriel calling them out, telling them that the very individuals they were drawing had arrived. Internally, they smacked themself, but quickly they leaped out of their chair and scurried out to the front room.

Sure enough, the two brothers from the picture stood in the room, Papyrus beaming at them and Sans offering a sleepy smile. Frisk became very shy very quickly and moved to hide behind Toriel. They were unsure of how to make a good first impression, and seemed to be settling instead for not making one at all.

Sans was the brother to move forward and stand before them; man, he really was rather short, he was just barely taller than them. He extended a hand to Frisk, and for a moment they remembered another kid in their old home that had always snuck whoopie cushions into their hand for whenever they gave someone a handshake. Toriel had said Sans liked funny jokes – what if he did that, too? Frisk told themself to stop being so paranoid and timidly extended a hand to take Sans'.

To their surprise, his hand was very warm, and to their relief, no whoopie cushion noise was heard. Something about him was fairly relaxing, though Frisk couldn't wrap their head around it at this point in time. “Hey, there. I'm Sans, this is my brother Papyrus. You must be Frisk, right?” They nodded. “It's great to meet you. Tori's told me a lot about you.”

Shyly, they glanced down and murmured a quiet “it's nice to meet you too.” They peeked up through their bangs back at Sans, finding that the sleepy reassuring smile was still in place. It put them at ease, even though they barely knew the guy. Yeah, they decided that they liked him well enough.

Soon, though, they pulled their hand from the short man's grip and approached the taller. They craned their head up to look at Papyrus. He was still grinning, but it wasn't a creepy one; it was a genuine, happy, playful beam that reminded Frisk a lot of a child, and this made it a lot easier for them to trust him. They reached their hand up, and the young man gave it a gentle shake.

“Greetings, tiny human!” This received a giggle of a response, and while the loudness would have scared them on any other adult for some reason it just didn't with him. “I am the great Papyrus, your new friend. I will be your bestie and we will have many good times together, I know it.”

They nodded in agreement, deciding right at that moment that they liked both of the brothers very much indeed.

 


	6. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Toriel talk in the kitchen after Papyrus and Frisk go to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IIIIIIIIIIII'M SORIEL TRASH LMAO help me

The rest of the day had been a busy one, but the good kind of busy. Frisk seemed to waste absolutely no time in befriending both of the brothers – they had actually fallen asleep on Papyrus' lap watching some random Disney movie on the television. They had conked out into a very deep sleep, and carrying them didn't cause them to stir even a little. Toriel had tucked them in, and just like that the child of the house was peacefully resting in their bed.

Papyrus had followed suit not even two hours later, announcing that he was very tired and if his brother would please read him a bedtime story he would go to bed as well. Toriel found it very endearing that Sans had gone along with it so good-naturedly; this was part of their bedtime tradition, it had been for as long as she knew them, and it was absolutely precious that Papyrus still had not grown out of it despite being nineteen years old and a college student with a part time job in the police department answering phones. The younger of the two really was somehow an overgrown eight year old as well as a functioning adult; how he managed that was a mystery, but Toriel was glad for it.

Once both of the other people in the house were asleep, she and Sans had planned to watch a movie or something, but instead opted for just sitting on the kitchen floor like teenagers and drinking eggnog. She'd tuned in the radio to a station playing twenty four hour Christmas music, and to the soothing sounds of Silver Bells and Silent Night and the like they talked about every little thing going on in their lives while slipping the occasional pun into the conversation. Some of the things they discussed they had already done so over the phone, but somehow it felt more authentic to just talk in person. Even after two years they weren't used to living so far apart.

Toriel _did_ like Sans, quite a bit at that. She found something about him very charming, and loved how he knew how to make her laugh. She would never admit that, of course, because he was her closest friend and she didn't want to ruin that for anything, even her own feelings. He was important to her; she couldn't bear the thought of losing him to a petty crush, and she never suspected that he might feel the same way about her. Why _would_ he? She was divorced, hadn't even been able to protect her own son from the dangers of the world... wow, okay, she stopped that thought where it was. She was having a nice evening and would let nothing get in the way of that, not even herself.

One of the things Toriel noticed about her dear friend was the tiredness in his blue eyes when he spoke, more than just sleepiness or weariness from the drive. This worried her, but she opted against probing; she was neither his mother nor his wife and he would come to her when he was ready. She trusted him to know what was best for himself, considering he was an adult with a younger brother to take care of. She  _hoped_ she was right in deciding to trust him with that.

Her own dark brown optics shifted away from her shorter friend to glance at the window. White flakes drifted through the dark sky, illuminated by the Christmas lights on the outside of the house and the warm yellow glow of the kitchen light from within. “It's snowing,” she commented on the obvious. It was a nice thing to see; perhaps this time it would stick, and they would have a white Christmas. She hoped so, not only for her own preferences but for Frisk's sake as well.

“Yeah.” Sans replied with a nod. “Comin' down pretty hard, too. Hope it doesn't snow us in.” Not that he minded being trapped in a house for an undisclosed amount of time with Toriel, Papyrus, and Frisk; he was just concerned for the safety of the rest of the gang. If he'd been told when he was fourteen that he would care about a grand total of  _nine_ people in the future, he probably would have laughed. That apathy gig hadn't lasted long, though he still tried to look careless.

“Do you think everyone will make it alright? Alphys is supposed to leave on Saturday, and I don't want her to get stuck in another city because her plane couldn't land. And who knows what kind of trouble Mettaton could get himself into trying to get him and Muffet here before Tuesday.” Toriel wished she could stop worrying so much, she really did, but once she gained a maternal instinct there was no turning back. The only one she  _wasn't_ worried about was her ex-husband, and that was less because of any leftover bitterness and more because he only lived a town over.

“Look, I'm sure everyone will get here alright, Tori.” Sans reached out and put a reassuring hand on her wrist. “If it'd make you feel better, we can listen to the weather if it's on. I'm sure it's just a quick little flurry and will pass before the sun comes up. Maybe Papyrus n' Frisk can make snowmen or something.” Something in him doubted that was true, but he'd stay positive for his friend's sake.

Toriel didn't catch onto the little bit of uncertainty, though, and nodded. The tall woman reached over for the portable radio and pressed one of the buttons on the top to change the stations quickly, listening to a second or two of everything that came on to ensure she didn't accidentally pass over what she was looking for. When she finally hit a weather report, she withdrew her hand and listened intently to what the soothing male voice over the broadcast had to say.

“It looks like there's going to be a bit of a blizzard hitting the area around the base of Mount Ebbot. Residents are advised to stay inside until at least Wednesday, as there will be a lot of snowfall and extreme winds. Roads may be blocked off for a while, and flurries are expected to continue into next week.”

A high distressed noise left Toriel as Sans reached over to flip back to the Christmas station. Until Wednesday? Roads blocked? It was true that there was nobody supposed to arrive until Saturday, but there was always the off chance that Undyne decided to surprise her by not announcing that she was free to go home and try and drive back in the middle of the blizzard – or worse, walk. While extremely intelligent and perfectly capable of taking care of herself, the Marine was prone to making rash decisions that had both benefited and harmed her in the past. It seemed that there was always reason to be worried about that particular young woman, whether she was overseas or not.

“Hey, it'll be alright. I'm sure nobody's stupid enough to try and drive in this weather, and if a flight gets delayed or something everyone knows to stay put. Everyone's going to be fine, and I'm sure everyone will get here in time for the big day.” Sans found himself grabbing onto Toriel's hand, which made both of them blush, try as they both might to hide it.

“I hope you're right, Sans... I hope you're right...”

 


	7. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk wakes up early due to the storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus and Undyne have been friends since high school when she scared off some bullies that decided to mess with him. She was a junior at the time and he was a freshman.

Frisk had another dream about their fantasy world, and it was another excellent and happy one. They dreamt that they left the Ruins and ran into Sans; skeleton Papyrus seemed to be a human hunting fanatic, but a harmless one, and had many puzzles for them to go through, none of them dangerous. However, the dream ended before they could leave the town (Snowdin, it was called), when the howling wind outside the house awoke them. It was not so much the wind itself as it was the sound of the branches on the trees scraping against their window; an irritating sound, and they were even more irritated when they opened their eyes and found it was still dark. A look over at the clock told them it was only half past four in the morning.

Being awoken by the weather was new to them, as they had once slept in a basement. With a groan, the child rolled out of bed and let their socked feet hit the wood of their bedroom floor. They were still wearing the sweater and sweatpants they'd worn the previous day, they realized – they must have fallen asleep watching the movie and someone carried them to bed. It was touching to them, especially considering in the past if they passed out they'd always been either smacked awake or left to rest on the floor, not that it had happened often.

They softly padded out of their bedroom and out into the hallway, assuming that nobody else in the house was awake. Frisk quietly inched Toriel's door open to peek in on her; sure enough, their mom was fast asleep, soft breaths causing her chest to rise and fall. They didn't even need to step downstairs to know that Sans and Papyrus were fast asleep, too; they could hear them both snoring loudly from the edge of the landing. Unfortunately, this meant that they were at a loss on what on Earth to do with themself; grown-up shows were always on at this hour so the TV was out, and they didn't feel like playing on their own in the dark. Eventually, they settled for the concept of having just the kitchen light on and drawing out their dream.

What they failed to remember, though, was that they had to cross through the front room to get to their destination. Frisk almost made it without any problems, but they swore they heard the bone chilling laugh from their dream coming from the center of the room. Heart pounding, they slowly turned around and realized that the yellow stood proud in its pot. _Just a flower,_ they thought to themself, _it can't hurt you_. They were still at a loss for why they were so afraid of this plant.

Frisk sucked in a deep breath and decided to either stand up to it or flee. They were filled with determination, though, so they began walking forward towards the villainous flora. Puffing their chest out and trying to look brave, they faced the plant –  _why the heck is this thing so big_ – and spoke, quietly so as not to wake the other three inhabitants of the house. “I'm not afraid of you. You're just a silly old yellow flower and I'm a big, tough kid. With fists.”

No response. It just stood there, menacingly, mockingly, its petals still as a corpse.

“Yeah, that's what I thought. You better leave me and my family alone, got it? Or I'll rip every single petal off you and eat your stem.” It didn't cross their mind even a little bit that what they were saying was morbid for an eight year old that thought a plant was sentient. They were just trying to mimic the tone their birth father always used to threaten them, which was the most terrifying thing in the entire world to a child. “Understand?”

Silence still. Frisk took that as a yes and, feeling a bit better, continued on their way through the room. The rest of the way to the kitchen was made in silence – they found it a bit eerie, especially after the commotion of the previous day. They flipped the switch to turn on the ceiling light, tiptoeing over to the drawer where they knew Toriel kept the paper and crayons. A few sheets were grabbed, a handful of crayons seized, and the child plopped in their usual spot at the kitchen table.

Before they began drawing, they looked up at the newfound visibility out the window. It was snowing, and really hard at that. It was impossible to see past a curtain of white and darkness that blocked the vision beyond a few inches past the glass of the window, and the wind almost sounded like it would blow the whole house away! It must have been really cold outside, and Frisk was grateful that they were safe and sound in the kitchen.

They turned their focus to the blank sheet before them and picked out a blue crayon, pressing the wax to the paper and beginning their piece. They decided to draw out the scene in their dream where they had met Sans and he pranked them with a whoopie cushion.

Frisk didn't even realize that so much time was passing and it was getting light outside; they were so occupied with their drawing, and they had reached the point where Papyrus was introducing them to that super complicated puzzle that turned out to be not dangerous at all. Their concentration wasn't broken until they heard a voice next to them, one that could only belong to the taller of the brothers that they were drawing at this very moment.

“What are you drawing? Can I see?” Papyrus asked, glancing over their shoulder at the spread of finished drawings across the table. They jumped a bit, but glanced back with a smile – it was eight already, as they could tell from the clock on the oven.

“My special world.” They explained all about the Underground and the ruins and the war between humans and monsters, telling him about how Toriel was a goat and the flower in the main room was an evil monster plant. They then moved on to the pictures of the skelebrothers, explaining in detail what role each of them played in this world, how Sans was a sentry and Papyrus was training to be a member of the royal guard. “And you try really hard to be threatening and capture a human, but you're a huge softie and you don't have the heart to do it because if the king gets his hands on a human he'll have to kill them and use their soul to break the barrier and let all the monsters return to the surface.” When they were finished, they looked expectantly to Papyrus.

He blinked a bit before smiling brightly, a great grin that reached his brown eyes. “This is amazing, Frisk! Very creative, I like it a lot. And I have an idea of who the captain of the royal guard that skeleton Papyrus trains under could be.”

They tilted their head, intrigued. “Really? Who?”

“Undyne!” He proceeded to tell them all about his dear friend, how she liked to protect everyone she cared about and felt very deeply about certain things, and how she sometimes looked for fights because she had a lot of pent up emotion, and how she was super strong and was really good at throwing things.

Frisk nodded seriously and pulled out the picture still in their pocket at the tall girl with long red hair and intense amber eyes. They decided within moments that they would make her a fish warrior, and got straight to drawing.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Questions? Something you'd like to show me? Contact teamchaosprez on Tumblr!


	8. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne makes some pretty poor choices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Undyne -- 21, female.

Undyne was _furious._ She had just spent over twenty four hours on a couple of different planes and buses, waited for three hours to rent a car, and had gotten very limited sleep with the exception of the hotel she had stayed in the night before. For Christ's sake, she just wanted to step into the heated wonderland of Toriel's house, catch up with Sans and Papyrus, watch some cheesy Christmas movie, maybe meet the kid that had been described to her in letter after letter, be at the airport in about five days to pick up her girlfriend off her flight from Japan. But _no_. She had to get stuck right smack dab in the middle of a massive snowstorm and drive her rental into just a **little** bit deeper snow than the four wheel drive could handle. Whiteout conditions? No problem. Deep snow? Fuck, now she's stuck.

The Marine let out an exasperated groan and rested her forehead on the steering wheel in front of her. God, was she ever tired. There was no hope of getting out of this car tonight; she was lucky it was heated, because she was most likely stranded here until a snowplow could come and dig her out. She internally cursed herself for not checking the weather report before she started driving; she didn't know how long this blizzard was going to keep up, and several different attempted stations turned up staticky – the signal was out. Maybe it was a little entertaining, how she'd gone through a few years of training and spent maybe three months out in the line of duty only to be trapped by the fucking  _ weather _ .

No, she  **refused** to give in to these circumstances. She'd waited  _ far  _ too long to come home to get trapped by Mother Nature's menstrual cycle. Undyne grabbed her hat out of her glove compartment and pulled it over her bright red hair, grimacing at the sensation of the fabric pushing against her ponytail. She made sure her black jacket was zipped all the way to her neck before pushing open the car door and shoving her hands in her pockets, wincing at the sudden blast of cold air, wind, and snow that smacked into her freckled face. Okay, wow, it was a  _ bit  _ worse out than she first thought.

Luckily, she had been down this road enough times to know exactly how to get to the Dreemur residence. It was only the rest of the way down this street and a right down the cul de sac. She could make it, no problem; she hadn't been trained for the army for nothing, after all! Amber eyes glanced upwards, squinting into the whiteout as she started forward. Christ, the wind was strong enough to potentially knock down a small child, and she thanked whatever higher being there was for her moderate amount of muscle mass that kept her from getting thrown into a snowdrift.

The journey through the neighborhood was grueling at best, and she could barely see a few feet in front of her. Undyne wondered for a moment what exactly had happened that got Mother Nature so righteously pissed off.  _ Maybe it's all the goddamn oil spills _ . Seemed like a decent enough explanation; she knew that there was some fucked up sciencey shit going on that caused the weather, but that was Alphys' territory, not hers. Hers was coming up with half assed excuses for random natural occurrences and punching things in the face. She was good at linguistics and writing, too, but that was a secret.

She finally reached the house after what felt like three thousand years, and almost cried from the sheer relief of seeing the wreath that was getting utterly battered by the storm. She reluctantly brought her hand from her pocket and slammed on the door with her first once, twice, three times before returning it to its previous spot. She  **really** wished she had a spare key or something, because for all she knew nobody was even home; only a couple cars would be present at the moment, and in weather like this they would be parked in the garage. Not that it mattered with the sheer lack of visibility anyhow. When nobody answered, she tried again, this time with a lot more force; if her hair wasn't frozen and frosted in place it probably would be by the time she got inside if this kept up.

Finally,  _ finally,  _ she heard the door unlock and slowly open, and Papyrus stood before her. She gave him a quick, toothy grin, excessively pleased when he yelled out to the other inhabitants of the house that “UNDYNE'S HERE!” and grabbed her by the wrist, yanking her indoors with strength that never failed to really startle her. She grunted a bit as she was enveloped in a massive, warm, absolutely fucking  _ crushing  _ hug that practically broke her spine, though she did manage to give her friend a pat on the back. Jesus, she couldn't help but wonder if Pap knew how strong he was.

Undyne reached back with her foot to shut the front door behind her, and grinned a bit as Sans and Toriel entered the room. The young man clinging to her seemed completely unwilling to let go; she was alright with this, though. She'd missed him, too, more than she cared to admit out loud. Papyrus was like a younger brother to her, had been for as long as they'd been friends.

“Did you drive all the way from town in the middle of a blizzard?” Toriel asked, as concerned and maternal as always. Undyne forced herself to roll her eyes, but in all honesty she felt like just breaking down and bawling. She hadn't realized how long it had been since someone talked to her with that tone until this very moment.

Sheepishly, the young woman rubbed the back of her head. “Well, I drove  _ most  _ of the way here, but I kinda got stuck about halfway down Ebbot Street and walked the rest of the way.” She was distracted when she noticed a short kid peek from behind Toriel, and quickly used this as an excuse to derive from the subject. “Is this Frisk?”

The child peeked back around with a nod. Huh. They were actually kinda cute, not at all what Undyne had been expecting when she was first told that Toriel was trying to adopt a child.

“Well, hey there, squirt. I'm Undyne.”

 


	9. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk and Undyne build a pillow fort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello ladies and gentlemen and people of all genders. It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm so sorry, I lost inspiration for this fic and it took me a long time to get it together. I'm still aiming to finish this fic the day after Christmas though! Thank you for your patience.

Frisk was unsure why, but they were slightly afraid of Undyne. Perhaps it was the entrance she had made, showing up freezing on the door after walking through a storm but certainly not looking the part. Maybe it was the battle scars that had become clear after she shrugged off her coat, or the amber color of her eyes, or even the slight sharpness to her teeth. Either way, no matter how much Toriel, Sans, and Papyrus seemed to trust her and enjoy her company, Frisk found her scary and tended to cling to Toriel whenever they had to talk to her.

For what it was worth, though, Undyne had been trying to hold back how loud and passionate she tended to be, opting instead for lamenting that she still had to do her Christmas shopping and plotting something with Papyrus that neither of them would reveal to the other three people in the house. Sans and Toriel seemed to know what was going on, but not being in on it made Frisk uneasy; they had decided to try and soothe their nerves by drawing their world instead of attempting to figure it out. It wasn’t like they were going to get much of anywhere with it anyway.

As the day progressed, the storm began dying down until only a light flurry was drifting to the snow-covered ground was left. A glance outside was all it took to know that they were absolutely snowed in; there was no way anything could get around without a snow plow driving through the white stuff first. Toriel announced at around eight o’clock in the evening that she was going to try and help clear out the mess before everything inevitably got backed up in the morning. Sans tried to talk her out of it, saying it wasn’t a very good plan and it would be better and safer to just wait until morning, but she was too stubborn to listen and it was eventually decided that the short man would accompany her.

The two of them had bundled up in everything warm they could find, and just before they left Toriel gave Frisk a light motherly peck on the forehead and announced to Papyrus and Undyne that they could stay up until no later than ten. Admittedly, the child was a little nervous to be in the house without their mom for the first time, but a promise from Papyrus that they could watch a movie with popcorn and eggnog and they would be allowed to stay up ten extra minutes if they promised not to tell Toriel was enough to knock any worries straight out of their head.

Frisk and Undyne were to pick the movie as Papyrus prepared the popcorn and mugs of eggnog, and Frisk was a bit nervous to be alone with the soldier as the two of them perused through Toriel’s collection of Christmas movies. Undyne glanced over at the child before pulling out a DVD and showing them the cover. “You ever seen this one? It’s called It’s a Wonderful Life.” Encouraged by Frisk’s shake of the head, she continued talking. “It’s about a guy that goes bankrupt and a fallen angel shows him what life would be like if he’d never been born. It’s pretty good.”

They took hold of the movie and studied the case before handing it back to the young woman and nodding. It did sound interesting, and would be a worthy reason to stay up an extra ten minutes. A decision had been made; that would be the movie they watched. The young woman quickly put the disc in the player so that it was ready to press play at any time.

Undyne had no clue how to deal with children, honestly, and she could tell that Frisk was a bit afraid around her. She tried to think back to when she was eight years old, and what she liked back then; the memories were pretty faded, considering she had blocked almost anything to do with her biological parents out, but she could very faintly remember tearing couches apart to make little safe havens to watch movies and play video games in. “Hey Frisk, ever made a pillow fort?” She asked, glancing over at said child. Maybe they’d be a bit more at ease around her if they made one, and knowing Papyrus he was probably going to deck out the popcorn and would take at least ten more minutes to finish.

They shook their head; they didn’t even know what one was, in all honesty. Undyne grinned and walked over to the couch, and they felt their chest lurch in fear when she started taking the cushions and throw pillows off the piece of furniture, sloppily stacking them on the floor to the side. Frisk would never have dreamed of that; what if Toriel got home and was angry about the mess? Undyne didn’t seem worried, though, so they approached timidly and watched curiously.

“It’s pretty self-explanatory. We’re going to make a fort outta all this stuff. Like… a little room. Here, set up these cushions like this.” She positioned one on its side beside the couch, and glanced over as Frisk followed suit. Once all of them had been set up as she saw fit, she stood up and shook the blanket out before draping it over the makeshift walls. “There. Can you grab the blanket out of my room? It’s the one across from Sans and Pap’s.”

Frisk nodded obediently and dashed into the front room, pretending not to notice Flowey there; they were in a bit of a hurry and had no time to humor the creepy flower! They slowed down a bit to go downstairs; Toriel always warned them not to run down because they could fall and hit their head, and they didn’t really feel like getting hurt right now. They had rarely been downstairs, but they did know that Sans and Papyrus shared the first room to the right of the hallway, so they could figure out which was Undyne’s with little effort.

They quickly opened the door and entered the spare room; it wasn’t like there was much to see in there, so they hurriedly tugged off the blanket from the twin bed and ran upstairs with it bunched up in their arms. Being so small, they could barely see, the fabric covering their face. They stuck their tongue out at Flowey on their way back to the living room, and silently held out the blanket to present it to Undyne. They were still too nervous to speak around her.

She seemed to be holding back laughter, probably at how ridiculous the child looked carrying a big thick blanket. She took it quickly with a “nice job,” crawling under the makeshift roof of their fort to spread it out as a floor. When she was satisfied with how it looked, the redhead turned so she could poke her head out and grin at Frisk. “Alright, we’re good. Now come on in here and help me set up the pillows so it’s extra cozy.”

Frisk nodded and pushed the throw pillows to Undyne before crawling into the little space, slightly in awe of the little room they had created. Their biological parents would have been absolutely furious if they’d ever so much as dreamed of doing anything like this, and the stark contrast of their new and old homes was almost painfully obvious. After setting up the pillows and each selecting one to lay on as well as setting one up for Papyrus, Undyne and Frisk smacked their hands together in a high-five. Frisk decided that there was nothing to be afraid of when it came to Undyne, any nervousness now gone. As for the soldier, the whole process had been strangely relaxing to her - she felt like a kid again, and it was nice.

The tall young man entered a few seconds after they completed their fort, juggling a big bowl of popcorn and three full mugs of eggnog. He seemed pleasantly surprised, ever-present grin widening as he set down the bowl in front of the fort so that it would be easily accessible by all three and passing out the drinks. Papyrus climbed in next to Frisk so that they were nestled between the two young adults, and they seemed rather content with this. The play button was pressed, and the film started.

 

* * *

 

Around eleven o’clock, Toriel and Sans returned to the house, both freezing and ever so slightly crabby. It had been colder than either expected, and working in the dark to clear up snow was not exactly a pleasant experience. The two separated shortly after taking off their coats and other snow gear, Toriel walking off to go check on Frisk and Sans moving to the kitchen to make some coffee for both of them.

However, not even a second after Sans got the machine going, Toriel walked into the kitchen and tugged on his arm. “Come look at this.” She whispered, leading him out of the room and towards the room with the television. It didn’t take very long for the pillow fort by the couch to be notable, but it was what was inside that was important.

Papyrus, Frisk, and Undyne were all asleep, an empty bowl and empty mugs in front of them. Frisk was leaning their head on Undyne, who had her face buried in her arms and was snoring loudly. Papyrus had his arm over both of the other two, and was also snoring loud enough to wake the dead; it was a miracle Frisk had even been able to fall asleep in the first place. The main title for It’s a Wonderful Life was playing on the screen, illuminating the sleeping trio in a soft light. The sight could be described with two words; adorable and heartwarming.

Sans had a light smile on his face; clearly, he agreed with her. Toriel pulled out her phone and focused it on the three, snapping a quick picture. “Should we move them?” Came the whispered question from the shorter of the two after a few seconds.

The woman shook her head. “Let’s let them sleep here. They look peaceful.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoying this? Please let me know! Leave a comment or contact teamchaosprez on Tumblr! I also track the tag "little steps undertale"!


	10. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk, Undyne, and Papyrus try to make spaghetti.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3c

Frisk groggily blinked their eyes open, slightly disoriented from dreaming and drowsy from waking up so suddenly. They had been chased by fish Undyne in their dream, right into a place their genius subconscious had named Hotland. After giving her some water, they walked off, and this was when they woke up. Sleep was not leaving them easily, their eyelids still heavy and their mind still fogged. Forcing their eyes open, they realized that it was still rather dark; somebody must have turned off the television after they fell asleep. They couldn’t remember what the ending of the movie was; maybe they could watch it again, and considering they’d enjoyed it they really wouldn’t mind that.

Papyrus’ arm was over them, and while it was loose enough that Frisk knew they could break away at any time, they didn’t have the heart to - plus, it might wake Papyrus up, and they didn’t really want to disturb anyone else just because they happened to wake up early. Perhaps a bit delayed, they realized that they were leaning against Undyne, who seemed to be dead to the world. They straightened up a bit, but the blood rushing to their head prompted them to let themself flop back against her. They would probably be better off just falling back asleep, and they were barely even awake to begin with. The snoring coming from both their companions was easy enough to ignore; they had slept during louder, more persistent, and less pleasant noises before.

So that was what they did, letting go of their grip on consciousness. They nestled comfortably against Undyne’s shoulder and let their eyes close, the weight lifting as they fell into a deep sleep, chest rising and falling with slow breaths and a peaceful expression on their face.

When they woke again, they could barely tell that time had passed; not much had changed aside from the lack of weight on their back and it was slightly quieter. They yawned and opened their eyes, finding that it was slightly lighter in the room; where it had once been pitch black had turned into dark shades of blue and grey. Undyne was still fast asleep next to them, but Papyrus had apparently gotten up and left. Frisk’s energy seemed to be mostly if not completely restored, so while the ghost of sleep still lingered in their eyes, they were no longer tired and able to crawl out of the fort.

The small child stretched and rubbed their eyes, glancing back at the sleeping young woman before determining that she was dead to the world and tiptoeing out of the room. They glanced around; the front room was empty, but they could hear some sounds from the kitchen. Someone was cooking or preparing to do so, apparently. They padded across the floor, sparing no more than a quick and wary glance at Flowey, and peeked into the kitchen.

Papyrus was gathering some ingredients, a pot, and a pan. A cutting board and knife were already on the counter next to the stove. Frisk blinked and debated whether or not to just go back to their room before deciding to speak up. “Whatcha makin’?” They asked simply, walking over to the small table and pulling themself up on one of the chairs.

The young man seemed startled - apparently he had not seen them enter - but wasted no time in turning quickly to face the child and grinning brightly. “Spaghetti! I am aware that it’s only six in the morning, but pasta is as good a breakfast as any other.” This earned a light giggle from Frisk, who found the idea a bit strange but was not entirely opposed to it. Spaghetti was pretty good for a dinner, so why not eat it first thing in the morning? “Would you like to help?” He added, seemingly pleased that they hadn’t argued against it.

Frisk nodded and slid down from where they were perched, softly walking over to the taller and looking up at him. Papyrus tapped his chin as he thought, looking around at the kitchen; it didn’t take him very long to come to a decision. “Could you please find some onions and noodles in the cupboard?” He requested, and the child nodded obediently, walking over to where they knew Toriel kept the non-perishable foods.

They had to stand on the tips of their toes to see, but it didn’t take them very long to locate a box of noodles. They couldn’t help but be a little impressed that their adoptive mother had the ingredients needed - maybe she was always prepared for Papyrus beforehand? Once they had the box in hand, they set it ever-so-carefully on the floor and returned to shuffling around in the cupboard. Some onions were in the back, they could see, but no matter how far they reached their little arms they couldn’t seem to reach it. Frisk didn’t want to ask Papyrus for help, because they’d said they could do it, but they also couldn’t extend their arms enough to retrieve the needed ingredient.

They felt a hand on their shoulder and turned quickly to see a certain sleepy redhead. Undyne reached back into the cupboard with no trouble and handed the bag of onions to Frisk. “Morning.” She greeted both of them gruffly - she wasn’t a morning person, apparently. “I see you’re makin’ spaghetti already. Mind if I help?”

Papyrus seemed extra pleased by the extra help offered and enthusiastically nodded. “But of course you can help, Undyne! I have missed cooking with you. Just make sure you don’t burn the house down this time!” Frisk walked over to him and offered the ingredients, which he took with no hesitation. “I am surprised you’re up this early, though. You usually sleep in until noon.”

“Tch, I’m not gonna burn the house down.” Undyne responded as she walked over to the sink with a pot in hand and began filling it with water to boil. “And gimme some time on the sleep thing. I’m still in army mode. They shine a flashlight in your eyes at six sharp every single morning. Even on the weekends.” She was speaking in a tired drone of a voice, so Frisk honestly couldn’t tell if she was serious. The young woman carried the now-full basin to the stove with no trouble.

“That’s horrible!” Papyrus replied, and seemed genuine when he said it - though it wasn’t long before he had finished putting together the tomato sauce on the stove and motioned for Frisk to come over. “Come here, Frisky, you can stir the sauce.”

Pleased to be useful, the child happily dragged a stool over and hopped on. Being extra careful around the hot surface, they took the wooden spoon and began stirring the red food under the watchful eye of Papyrus. The two adults carried on a conversation behind them, but in all honesty they were too consumed in working on the spaghetti to possibly worry about what they were talking about. They didn’t really register any of what was being said until Undyne came up behind them.

“Dude, it’s cooking way too slow. You should turn up the heat.” She spoke, and Frisk didn’t need to look over their shoulder to know that she was frowning slightly. The impatience was clear just from her antsy tone of voice.

“No!” Papyrus sounded appalled. “That would be reckless and dangerous! We could start a fire, and then Toriel would never let Frisk near us again. And neither of us can afford to pay her back for any fire damages!”

“It’s not gonna start a fire, Pap.” Undyne replied, reaching over to the knobs on the side of the stove. She drove the burner up, and Frisk couldn’t deny that they felt a little nervous by the sudden increase in how many bubbles were appearing against the surface of the sauce. They tried to make up for it by stirring the stuff faster and harder.

It came as a surprise when a sudden lick of flame struck the food, and suddenly all Frisk could feel was a blinding, burning pain in their right arm. They shrieked, oblivious to the sudden flames taking over the stove and part of the wall. They looked down to find that the sleeve of their sweater was aflame - and it spread to almost their armpit before the adults finally snapped out of their shock.

Undyne grabbed onto Frisk’s arm to stop the fire, hissing loudly when her hand was damaged but paying no mind to it. She quickly lifted Frisk around their middle with one arm and used the other to grab onto Papyrus’ wrist, making a run for it out of the kitchen with both of her younger friends in tow.

The last thing Frisk was aware of before they lost consciousness was Papyrus trying to talk to them, though they could barely understand what was being said through the pain. Everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sorry.
> 
> Please note that I don't reply to every comment, just the questions or Tumblr asks! But please continue your support, it keeps me writing.


	11. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when you burn Toriel's baby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1: Please don't ask about Undyne's past, it will be explained with time.  
> 2: I'm trying to work on lengthier replies so expect future updates to have 2k words or more.  
> 3: The current date in the story is December 15th. Alphys will be introduced soon.

Sans was awoken by a very loud, very high, very annoying beeping sound. His first instinct was to think that it was just his alarm clock trying to get him up and moving for another day at work, and being honest, he was having none of it after having such an exhausting day previously. He reached a hand out to try and slam the button, only for the extremity to smack against the edge of the wood of the nightstand. Baffled momentarily, it took his sluggish mind several seconds to realize that it couldn’t have been his alarm clock - for one thing, it was coming from the ceiling and not next to him, and for another, he was at Toriel’s house and there were no alarm clocks to wake him up here. So it had to be…

The fire alarm.

He was up on his feet very quickly after this delayed realization, kicking his blankets off as fast as he could and almost falling flat on his face from the vertigo of getting up too quickly when only about halfway awake. React first, think later; but even so, as he forced himself to start running out of the room and to the stairs, dozens of negative outcomes were plaguing his groggy mind. Papyrus was the first intelligent thought he actually managed to have; his brother could be in danger, and that made his heart lurch painfully in his chest and panic start to settle in. He also thought briefly about Toriel and Frisk, and to a lesser extend Undyne; half of the people he gave a shit about were in this house, which was potentially on fire, which had the very real possibility of killing them all. Sans was convinced he’d never moved so fast in his life as he stumbled up the stairs, and the massive cloud of smoke shrouding his visibility did his ability to remain calm absolutely no favors. God, he was out of shape.

The source of the smoke wasn’t very difficult to pinpoint; it was thickest near the kitchen. He pulled the collar of his shirt up so that he could breathe a little easier before getting down and crawling through the smoke. Luckily, the room seemed to be empty, and the fire wasn’t nearly as huge as the thick blanket of smoke made it out to be - it was just contained to the stove and the counter around it. It would be a disaster if it were to spread, though, so Sans quickly entered the room and grabbed for the bucket near the edge of the counter. It was a struggle to find the sink, but he managed and filled the container. When he was satisfied he quickly splashed the liquid onto the fire, putting it out with ease.

He heaved a heavy sigh of relief and rubbed his face, exiting the kitchen to make sure everyone else was out of the house before he could leave and get some fresh air. A relieved sigh left him when he heard yelling - but that was quickly replaced by concern. Damn, Toriel sounded pissed, and probably at Undyne considering Papyrus was too much of a puppy dog to ever be scoldable and Frisk was too quiet and timid to make much trouble. The short man quickly jogged to the front door before exiting and walking over to where the others stood at the end of the driveway.

Toriel was cradling an unconscious Frisk against her chest, and even without looking Sans could tell that their arm was burned to hell and back. She was shouting at Undyne, who was keeping one hand against the snow and looking equal parts guilty and miserable. Papyrus, bless his heart, was using some more of the freezing substance to keep Frisk’s burns cooled. Sans sighed heavily and stood by where his brother kept coming to dig some more out of the thick blanket on the ground.

“-- could get taken away for this, Undyne! I haven’t even had them a week, the courts won’t even hesitate to take them from my custody! Not only that, but the whole city is snowed in and there’s no way in hell a fire truck or an ambulance could make it down there! We’re going to have to take Frisk to the hospital, and there’s no way we can possibly drive through this--”

Everyone must have forgotten him in the panic, and that was absolutely understandable, but he couldn’t help being just the slightest bit disheartened. “I stopped the fire,” he mumbled to his brother, who briefly stopped what he was doing to beam at him. That picked him up a little, at least.

“-- reckless and irresponsible! One of you could have died! And do you want Frisk to get sent into the foster system? You of all people should know how that feels!--” That hit a sore spot, because Sans could watch Undyne physically flinch and shrink in on herself. Getting a furious lecture from Toriel was never a fun experience, and Sans felt the need to break it in order to get something just a tad more useful done and also save Undyne’s emotional health.

“How long’s she been at it?” He asked as Papyrus finally dropped, plopping into a sitting position in the snow - which he would probably complain about later when his rear finally registered the cold. His brother was very thick-skinned, which was something Sans admired about him.

“Not long. Five or six minutes, I think.” The younger replied, looking towards his older brother. His tone of voice was quieter than usual, which made Sans worry immensely. He must have really felt bad about whatever happened. “We were trying to make spaghetti in the kitchen. Undyne turned up the heat, I told her not to. The food set on fire, and it made Frisk’s sleeve light on fire. Undyne grabbed their arm to stop it from spreading much and pulled us both out. Toriel followed us a little after.”

Sans sighed heavily; somehow, that sounded like something that had been likely to happen from the start. The redhead was impatient and very rarely listened to much advice unless it was a direct command from somebody above her that had earned her respect. Even so, he didn’t think that the poor girl deserved to get screeched at in such a way - and Frisk was still passed out, which quickly became his first priority. The kid definitely needed a hospital, and delaying getting them to one would probably look even worse for both chances at recovery and Toriel’s ability to keep them. So the short man quickly approached his tall friend, cleared his throat, and began trying to get her attention.

“Tori.”

She either didn’t hear him or ignored him, continuing her heated rant towards Undyne. Sans found that rather frustrating - and that was a pretty rare emotion for him. He repeated her name a couple more times, both attempts at getting her to face him and listen to what he had to say just falling flat. Frustration turned into anger, and for perhaps the first time since they’d met he came within a few inches of losing his temper, choosing to raise his voice and use the firmest yell he could muster.

“TORIEL!”

All three adults turned to him, startled. He forced himself to appear calm and collected; he hadn’t actually yelled in a very long time, and somehow it felt kind of… good to get that off his chest. Was it normal to want to scream for three years after raising your voice? Probably not, but he’d just have to worry about that later. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants before beginning to speak, more in his usual uncaring and emotionless tone of voice. The underlying humor was gone, however, and the silence emanating from his companions was almost unsettling.

“Frisk seriously needs a hospital. I’m not even up close and I can tell they have third-degree burns, and those are painful as fuck and could probably get infected.” Toriel opened her mouth to speak, but Sans cut her off rather quickly by continuing. “And I know we can’t exactly drive there right now. So I’ll carry ‘em. Tori’ll come with me and Undyne and Pap will stick around here to make sure ‘Dyne’s hand doesn’t get infected.” He didn’t deny that he was strong enough to walk the next few blocks to the hospital while carrying an underweight eight-year-old; he was a police officer, after all, and had been through all sorts of physical tests and trials. Even if he wasn’t all that in-shape, he could handle it.

There was a bit of hesitation as the others got over their shock at Sans’ brief losing of his temper before a mutual nod of agreement ran through all three of them. Sans was intent on getting the kid to the hospital as soon as humanly possible, so he wasn’t really worried about gathering his all-important blue coat at the moment; instead, he expectantly reached. Toriel picked up pretty quickly and gently laid Frisk in his arms, their head rolling against his shoulder almost as soon as the hold became tight and snug. With very little hesitation, the two oldest began walking down the street.

The first road or two was made in an uncomfortable silence, both of them occasionally glancing at Frisk to see if they’d woken up yet. They couldn’t have inhaled much smoke, and they definitely wouldn’t have hit their head, so the pain must have been seriously brutal to keep them down for this long. After they made their second turn, Toriel cleared her throat and spoke. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you yell before. But thanks for making me stop yelling at poor Undyne. I think I got a little carried away.”

“No problem. But yeah, I try to keep my temper under control. I only ever lose it when Pap’s in trouble. And I guess that umbrella has expanded to include this little dork.” He shrugged; it didn’t feel like all that remarkable an achievement to him. Just another day in the life, for the most part; everybody had to lose their cool every once in awhile, and his limit had been reached. Simple as that.

“Still. Sixteen years of knowing you, and I just now found out what you’re like when you’re angry.” She chuckled a little, but he could tell she was still ungodly concerned about her adoptive child. This was probably just small talk to distract her, and as always, Sans was willing to oblige. “You really are a mystery, you know that? I guess I still have a lot to learn about you while you know everything about me. That’s hardly fair.” She reached over Sans’ shoulder to carefully brush Frisk’s bangs out of their eyes. What the point was, he didn’t know; a nervous habit, maybe.

“It’s probably better that way,” he replied, taking note that the towering hospital was coming closer and closer into view. They were almost there. “And I don’t know everything about you. Not really. I’m still not sure what your favorite color is.” Wow, what an utterly lame thing to say, and he internally kicked himself for it. Partially because he did know. It was purple. Dark, royal purple, like her favorite dress or like amethyst stones. Wow, okay, now he was being creepy.

Toriel laughed a little, a more relaxed sound than it had been before. “Yes, you do.” So he was cheering her up a little, thank God. Why was that important to him right now? He didn’t really know, but that was alright. He needed something to focus on besides the unconscious child in his arms anyway. “I don’t think I know yours, though.”

“It’s red.” The answer was quick; easy question, really. “Maybe you should’ve _red_ a little deeper into it.” The laugh that earned could probably be prescribed as an antidepressant, because it lifted his mood a bit more pretty easily.

However, that was shot down with ease when the first few snowflakes started falling from the sky above. Toriel let out an aggravated groan, which Sans was pretty tempted to mimic. Great. This was just perfect. He tried to think of a pun to match the situation, but he was too frustrated to do so properly.

“Mother Nature is just plain cold.”

Wow, what do you know, those came on instinct now.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At last, a Papyrus chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if Undyne seems a little out of character.

Papyrus was concerned for Undyne. When she went inside to open up all the windows in the house, she had done so without her usual confidence and flair. When she came back outside, she just plopped on the ground and kept her injured hand in the snow. When he spoke to her, she responded half-heartedly and with none of her typical spirit. Even now, while he tended to her burn in the bathroom of the now smoke-free house, she refused to so much as look him in the eye. The distantness made him wary, sad, and a little uncomfortable. He’d known Undyne for five years, and she tended to only act like this when something was seriously wrong. There was only one thing this could be about.

“... She did not mean it, you know.” Papyrus tried to talk as casually as he could as he wrapped a linen bandage around the blistered and calloused skin of her hand. “People always say things they don’t really mean when they’re angry.” He knew very little about Undyne’s past, just that her parents died when she was in her early teens and then she was stuck in the foster system until she ran away at sixteen. He just knew that her time in said system wasn’t something she enjoyed talking about or having brought up, and Toriel had better apologize for saying it or he’d give her a stern talking to.

“I know.” Undyne replied blankly, still refusing to meet his eye. “That’s not what I’m feeling bad about, though. Good guess, but no.” She sighed heavily and used her free hand to brush some red hair from her face. “I really fucked up, Pap. Me or you or Frisk could’ve gotten killed, and it’s all my fault. This isn’t even the first time it’s happened. This isn’t the first time I’ve caused something that got somebody hurt.” Papyrus really had no idea what she was talking about, but he listened intently as he tied off the bandage and put a hand on her wrist, trying to convey encouragement for her to keep talking. “I guess I’ll just never learn. Maybe you guys would be better off if I just left.”

He couldn’t help but be worried. He’d never seen her like this before! Well, it was good that his friend was finally opening up to him about her thoughts, which she always seemed to internalize, but - it didn’t make it any less unsettling that she even had this thought! He resisted the urge to shout at her, knowing that doing so probably wouldn’t help at all. He might have been a naturally loud sort of person, but he did know his friends pretty well, and he knew how to act around people that were feeling pretty bad about themselves. “Undyne, I know you tend to forget about yourself and try to look invincible and put everybody else first and get really emotional and passionate about doing that. But please… don’t talk like we’d be better without you.” He was so inexperienced with this; he had no clue what to say, so he was trying to just be as heartfelt as he possibly could. “Everybody likes you. You’re Toriel’s friend, and Sans’ friend, and Frisk’s friend, and my friend. Mettaton and Muffet like you, too. Alphys loves you so much, and you’re like a daughter to Asgore. I don’t think anybody would be better off without you.”

Undyne sighed heavily but managed to straighten up a little and give Papyrus a tiny smile, much to his delight. She must have been feeling better, meaning that it worked, meaning that the great Papyrus had succeeded once again! Hurrah! “I guess you’re right. Thanks, Pap. I needed that.” She sounded sincere, and honestly, that was enough for him. He would have internally given himself a pat on the back, but really, he was just glad that her mood was improved a little bit. However, she didn’t give him enough time to reply before talking again. “I think I’m going to go down to my room and watch Tokyo MewMew so I can talk to Alphys about it when she gets here. You’re free to come and join me if you want, but I don’t blame you if you don’t. Whenever we Skype she says it’s really trashy.”

“Anytime! I might, but I would like to stay here and see if Sans sends me an update first. The signal is really bad downstairs and I don’t wanna delay any messages from getting to me.” He beamed brightly as she got up and dusted herself off. He was so relieved that she was feeling better and so happy that he helped her with it. “I hope you enjoy your show, though! Even if it is trashy. Trash can be pretty nice sometimes.” What was that saying again? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

“Alright, suit yourself.” Undyne laughed a bit, shaking her head as she walked out of the little room. “I’m sure I will. Come let me know if you get any word, okay?” Once he nodded to show that he would, she left from sight to go downstairs.

The day might not have had a good start, but it was getting better already, and Papyrus couldn’t be happier that that was the case. He got up from where he was seated on the cold tiled ground to walk to the kitchen. Despite his increase in mood, he couldn’t help but frown a little when he saw how blackened the wall and counter around the stove had become. That would probably be expensive to fix if Toriel decided to do so, and neither Papyrus nor Undyne had enough money to pay for it meaning it would have to come out of the pocket of either Toriel herself or Sans. And that wasn’t even considering the damage to poor little Frisk, an actual living child. If their injuries were really as bad as his brother had thought they were, then he would most certainly live in guilt for the rest of his life.

Papyrus chose to sit by the window and watch the snow come down instead of sit at the kitchen table and stare at the remainder of the little cooking adventure that morning. It was more peaceful, and less guilt inducing. It had gone from a pretty light snow to thick, slow, and silent flakes drifting from the ground. He hoped that Toriel, Sans, and Frisk had made it by then, but he didn’t pull out his phone to check in case they hadn’t. He thought it was kind of entertaining how the snow had taken so long to show up and, once it had, managed to get this brutal and all-covering over the course of just a few days. At least it would be a white Christmas.

His phone pinged in his pocket, and he grinned brightly when he pulled it out to find it was from Sans and the preview quite clearly stated that it was good news. He slid to unlock so that he could read the message - “good news. frisk just has some bad second degree burns. they’re awake and alert and on some over the counter pain meds, but we might have to stay for the rest of the day because the snow is getting heavy again and they don’t want us out in this weather especially without a car. asgore might come pick us up, he hasn’t answered toriel’s call so we don’t have any confirmation on that. sort of bad news depending on how you look at it. social worker has to come for a visit tomorrow to interview them and make sure they’re being treated right but i don’t think they’ll be taken away since this was a pretty rare incident and an accident caused by some brief carelessness of someone other than toriel.”

Wow, this kept getting better and better! Thank goodness Frisk was alright, and while he was kind of sad that he and Undyne would be alone in the house for the night, he was fine with it so long as the other three were safe. He quickly typed out a reply, in all capital letters as he always did. “EXCELLENT! I’M GLAD TO KNOW THAT THEY ARE DOING WELL. UNDYNE IS DOING FINE, HER HAND WASN’T THAT BAD BUT I BANDAGED IT UP AND PUT SOME MEDICINE ON IT AND GAVE HER AN ASPIRIN. SHE SEEMED PRETTY DOWN, THOUGH, SO I HOPE TORIEL IS READY TO APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT SHE SAID.” Almost immediately after hitting send, he worried about maybe sounding passive-aggressive, but the anxiety wore off pretty quickly. Surely Sans would understand that he only meant to help his friend.

The reply came pretty quickly, though Papyrus had been impatiently tapping his foot the entire time. “don’t worry, i’m sure she will. she feels pretty bad, so i wouldn’t be surprised if that was the first thing she did. i’m glad undyne’s okay, though.” While he was in the middle of typing a response, another message popped up. “tori says to take care of the house and try to clean up what you can in the kitchen if anything. and make sure undyne keeps her bandages fresh and stuff. she’s gonna have a bad time if that thing gets infected.”

Papyrus smiled at his phone and backspaced until the message he’d been in the midst of typing was gone, opting instead for starting a new one. “OKAY! I WILL SEE WHAT I CAN DO. AND I’LL MAKE SURE UNDYNE’S BURN IS KEPT CLEAN, DON’T WORRY! WE’LL BE OKAY. JUST TRY TO GET HOME IN TIME TO READ ME A BEDTIME STORY!” He didn’t really need to add on the last sentence, but felt the need to. The previous night had been the first time in years the brothers had skipped the bedtime ritual, and he still felt a little weird about it. Yes, he was nineteen years old and probably should have outgrown that by now, but it was a rather comforting habit that gave him faith that some things would remain stable no matter what. Though he hid it pretty well, Papyrus was quite terrified of growing up and letting his entire life be changed without looking back.

“i’ll do my best, buddy.” And that was the end of that conversation. Papyrus considered sending one more reply, but decided it might have been best to just let it drop. Sans was in the hospital acting as one of Frisk’s caretakers, after all, and he was probably too busy to be on the phone! And even if he wasn’t, texting while taking responsibility for an injured child probably looked pretty unprofessional. Not that he knew, considering he’d never gotten hurt beyond some basic illnesses and scrapes and bruises before and couldn’t think of any other children he and/or his brother had taken care of.

Besides, he needed to go downstairs and tell Undyne! He’d said he would, after all! He quickly pocketed his phone again and hopped up from his chair, quickly walking - well, more like jogging, really - out of the front room and to the stairs. He couldn’t help but pause momentarily, though, to give the yellow flower standing proud in the center of the room a quick glance. Frisk had told him about what that flower was in their world - but he really couldn’t see anything threatening or evil about it. It was just a regular old flower, though its origins were a bit strange. He shook his head; it didn’t really matter.

“Good news!” He announced, opening Undyne’s room without knocking first - it was a bad habit, and he internally scolded himself for it the moment the door was open. Several times in several sleepovers and Christmas visits, he’d walked in on things he still wished he could forget. For now, though, the redhead was just watching an anime on her laptop with her chin on a pillow.

Amber eyes quickly flitted over to him, a smile slightly stronger than the one she’d had earlier present on her face. “Did Sans get to you with an update?” She asked, reaching to her computer to hit the pause button and taking out her headphones as she sat up on her bed to face him. She seemed to be in a much better mood, which he thought was absolutely, one hundred percent excellent.

“Yes! Frisk is okay, they just have some second degree burns on their arm. They might have to stay at the hospital a little late though, because it’s starting to snow again. Toriel says she’s sorry and also to try and clean up the kitchen. Sans says I need to make sure you keep the bandages on your hand nice and clean and fresh, so we have to change them every couple of hours.”

Undyne snorted a bit. “Aw, Pap, you’re not really going to make me try and clean with a hurt hand, are you?” Oh, he knew she was just faking to mess with him! She’d done it before, and Papyrus knew that she could handle just about anything regardless of whether her hand was burned or not. She wasn’t one to slack off because of injuries. Or to try and get sympathy. Or give up in general.

“Of course I am, Undyne! I might be the great Papyrus, but I can only handle so much responsibility!” He replied, trying to look shocked that she would even ask such a question and puffing his chest out. Things were starting to look a little more normal, which put him more at ease.

“I should’ve known.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tokyo MewMew is an actual anime, by the way. One that I wasn't aware of until the same friend that told me this AU was fine explained it to me. The one Undyne is watching is the sequel anime but I can't remember what it was actually called?


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk wakes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YO GUYS I'M SORRY, I meant to have this out yesterday but I got really sick.

Waking up was, in a word, confusing. Frisk quite clearly remembered losing consciousness on the way out of the house - and now they were in a odd room that they didn’t recognize. The walls were painted a pale green, there was some furniture - mostly chairs - scattered about, and they were resting on a cot. Shifting brought a bit of pain to their arm, and glancing down told them that it was wrapped up with an ice pack resting against the bandage. They were a bit frightened, but could deduce fairly quickly that they were in a hospital room; probably because their arm had been burned in the kitchen.

“Hello.” A soft voice spoke beside them, and turning their head they sighed in relief; it was Toriel. They gave her a bright smile, happy as ever to see her. “You gave us quite a scare there, Frisk. You’ve been out for almost two hours. That’s a long time for someone to be unconscious just because of pain.” She reached over as she spoke, gently adjusting the ice so that it sat on the most-affected part of their arm. They gave a hiss of pain at this, and Toriel looked as though she genuinely felt bad about it.

“Is it bad?” They asked meekly. The worst injury they’d ever gotten was when their arm was broken the day they met their mom, and this level of pain was almost up there. Well, okay, that was a bit of an overstatement, but it really hurt and they were a bit afraid that the injury was bad. Partially because they knew that if it was really awful they might be taken away from Toriel, and they were just now getting used to being in a loving home situation - they never wanted to let their new family go, especially not the woman that had brought them in and helped them so much over the last six months.

“Not especially.” Those words made Frisk sigh with relief. “It looks and feels much worse than it is. It’ll leave a scar, but should be faded in a few weeks. They gave you a little bit of a painkiller, and that should start kicking in pretty soon, so you’ll be good to go for a few hours… and then if you need more we have plenty of ibuprofen at home.” She reached over to gently brush their bangs from their face. “We’ll probably have to stay until the snow dies down, though. It’d be pretty dangerous to go out in this weather, especially if it keeps getting thicker.”

They nodded a little to show that they had listened and turned their head to look to the other side of the room out the window. Sure enough, it was snowing again, and the fluffy white precipitation was coming down at a somewhat thick rate. Yeah, they had to agree that it would probably be a good idea to wait around inside until this passed. The hospital wasn’t so bad, really, and it wasn’t like they needed to stay a while like they did after they were found in the sewer. It was a great comfort to know that they could just go home right after it stopped snowing.

Suddenly, they remembered something - Undyne had grabbed onto their hand to stop the fire from spreading. With almost comical speed, their head turned to face Toriel. “Is Undyne okay? Did the house burn down?” The questions were asked fairly quickly, and for a second or two they were worried about whether or not Toriel understood them. For the most part, the fact that she laughed a little doused their worries and calmed them down, though it wasn’t until she actually answered did they relax.

“Undyne is probably alright, my child. No, the house didn’t burn down, though the kitchen got charred a bit. Sans is going to text Papyrus to make sure everything is fine as soon as he’s finished talking to the receptionist and has come back to check on you. Don’t worry, everything is alright.” She gave them a warm smile, gently placing her hand over their uninjured wrist. They managed to find it in them to return it as they relaxed, leaning their head back against the pillow.

The next thought that popped into their head was mobility, or more specifically whether they could achieve it. They glanced around - they weren’t hooked up to any important tubes or liquids or anything, so they didn’t think it would be against the rules, but even so they asked just in case. “Mom, can I get up?” Dark eyes watched her steadily, trying to find an answer in her expression before she spoke. One of the things they liked most about Toriel was the fact that she always had some emotion present on her face, and because of that sometimes she was predictable - it was a nice contrast from the emotionless semi-robots that used to be in charge of raising them.

For example, the slightly sorrowful look on her face told them that the answer was no or simply that she didn’t know. Darn. “Frisk, I think that would mess with the ice a little bit and look slightly irresponsible on my part. So I’m afraid not.” She offered a sad smile and gently squeezed their hand. “But as soon as you can I’ll make sure you do. I promise.”

Well, okay, that was good enough for now, they supposed. Even if they were a little upset that a little burn on their arm was preventing them from moving around. At least Toriel was here to keep them company, and apparently Sans too. That would probably keep them from getting bored. “Okay,” they huffed, sitting up a little bit straighter and continuing their scan of their surroundings. According to an analog clock resting on the wall across from their bed, it was still pretty early, just a little past eight in the morning. The sun was up, as evidenced by the lightness of the room. So much had happened in such a small window of time, and honestly, it frightened them a little bit. It almost reminded them of…

No. They wouldn’t think of that now.

The door to the room opened, and their head quickly snapped to attention, turning almost violently quickly towards the sound. It was an instinct to try and react fast, but they relaxed almost immediately upon recognizing Sans and his lazy, tired smile. “Hey there, kid.” He spoke, walking over and gently ruffling their hair, which made them giggle lightly. “Glad to see you’re up and at ‘em. You were out for a long time. I was almost thinkin’ I’d have to take out a joy buzzer and shock you awake.”

They giggled again, the light in their eyes becoming a little brighter. Toriel, however, still seemed concerned, and while she spared a light little smile her tone soon turned serious. “Did they say anything about social work?” … Oh. That had slipped their mind while they were thinking of other things. “Everything is still clear, right? They’re not going to take them away?” Briefly Frisk wondered if it was really necessary for her to talk about this in front of them, though they quickly decided that they’d rather hear about it as soon as possible then have worries about it for the next week.

“Yeah, everything’s good. They just want to have a day where the social worker comes in and surveys the house and interviews Frisk and stuff. They said the sooner the better to make sure not much could be hidden or rehearsed, so I just said tomorrow. Hope that’s alright, ‘cause I think it’s too late to change it.” Sans tried to speak in a slightly more hushed tone than Toriel used, almost as if what he was saying was bad news. But to Frisk, it was perfect. It wasn’t like any of them had anything to hide, and they had nothing but good things to say about their current situation.

“Well, that’s a relief… when you text Papyrus, make sure you let him know to clean up the kitchen a little bit, okay? I don’t really want to get home and have to stay up really late just cleaning. We all need a good night’s rest if we have a home visit tomorrow.” Toriel almost sounded annoyed, and it wasn’t that Frisk couldn’t blame her. Their first home visit wasn’t supposed to happen until the second week of January, and it being so close to Christmas nobody particularly wanted to have to deal with a social worker poking around in everyone’s business.

“Will do. I’m about to text him right now, actually.” He gave a slight wave of his hand and walked over to another chair, plopping into the cushioned seat and pulling out his phone.

As he began typing up his message, the door opened once more and a blonde nurse with a smiling face walked into the room. “Hello, Frisk. How are you feeling?”

 

* * *

 

Frisk, Sans, and Toriel returned to the house after what felt like thirty years but was really just over five hours or so, as soon as the snow had died back down and a cab could be hunted down for the three of them to ride back in after some of the stuff on the ground had been plowed. As soon as they pulled into the driveway, Frisk eagerly wriggled out of their mom’s lap and took off in a sprint towards the welcoming home, finding out with a pleased grin that the door was, in fact, unlocked. They wasted absolutely zero time in pretty much slamming the door open and dashing into the house.

Almost immediately, Papyrus had dashed out of the kitchen and trapped them in a massive crushing hug, squeezing them and making them giggle as they tried to get free. He loosened his grip after a few moments, but did not put them down, instead carrying them over to the couch and sitting down with them on his lap. They were barraged with all sorts of questions, most of which they did their best to answer, though after a little while their tall friend seemed to remember that he was supposed to be cleaning. He set them down on the floor and dashed off, explaining that he, the great Papyrus, needed make sure the kitchen was looking as nice as possible before tomorrow.

They hadn’t even moved to go to another room before Undyne had entered. The redhead looked a little awkward as she glanced around before kneeling to Frisk’s height, gifting the child with a small smile. “Uh, hey there, punk. I don’t… do this often, so make sure you remember it.” She seemed to try and put a joking threatening tone on the last few words, but in Frisk’s opinion she failed spectacularly. “I’m… sorry. About the whole fire thing. And making your hand get burnt. That was a little stupid of me, and Pap told me not to, and he’s usually pretty right about cooking, so I should’ve listened. You got hurt, and I got hurt, and the whole house could’ve gone down in flames. It was a pretty big screw up on my part. And I’m really sorry about it.”

She sounded sincere, which was most of what mattered - and Frisk hadn’t even been upset with her to begin with, so a bright smile was the first response they gave. The next was to move forward to gently wrap their uninjured arm around her neck in a hug. She stiffened up for a moment, but quickly returned it, letting her own muscular arms rest around the child. “It’s okay,” they responded. “It was an accident, I know. You wouldn’t do anything to hurt me or Papyrus or yourself on purpose.”

“Darn right I wouldn’t.” She grumbled in response, though Frisk thought she sounded pretty pleased, so that was good.

“Just make sure you never do anything that could start a fire again. Do you promise?”

“Alright, alright, I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fic has officially caught up to me oh god how did this happen
> 
> Next chapter will be abt the home visit and will probably be pretty short?? but then we get Alphys hell yeah.


	14. AUTHOR'S NOTRE

Hey you guys, I'm so sorry but I'm going to have to drop this fic. The crunch for time has me really stressed out and I just can't operate under this much pressure. I WILL be starting a sequel with a collection of short stories sometime in the coming weeks though, probably either Christmas day or shortly after. I will update with another note to let you know when that happens.

Anywho, I feel that I owe it to you guys to list some headcanons for the non-introduced characters and some plot points:

  * Alphys is 20, demigirl (nonbinary), and has been studying in Tokyo. She, Mettaton, and Muffet are all siblings. Napstablook is their cousin. She is dating Undyne, and has been doing so since high school.
  * Mettaton is 18, trans boy, and has been picking up acting jobs.
  * Muffet is 8, female, and a con artist in the makings that adores having tea parties.
  * Asgore is 36, male, and the owner of a large business.
  * Chara and Flowey will both be discussed in the sequel.
  * Sans and Toriel admit their feelings for one another on Christmas day, and start dating promptly.
  * Frisk gets over their fear of Flowey.
  * Sans does not admit to needing help with his depression yet.
  * Mettaton gets what he needs to begin officially going on hormones to transition.
  * Asgore is a sad dad.



Again, I'm so sorry. I wish I could keep going but the pressure is killing me and my inspiration is down. I'm so sorry.

I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN THE SEQUEL STARTS!


	15. Last Note

As promised, here's the sequel! http://archiveofourown.org/works/5604028


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